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POV: Your Coworkers Think You Got Laid Off — You Actually Retired at 52 — Transcript

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0:00It's 5:52 on a Friday morning and the
0:02locker room at the box plant smells the
0:04way it always has. Burnt coffee,
0:06hydraulic oil, somebody's menthol
0:08aftershave. Locker 114 is open in front
0:11of you. Inside are a pair of steel-toe
0:13boots resoled twice, a dented thermos, a
0:16laminated lockout tagout card, and a
0:18calendar from a bearing supplier that's
0:19still turned to March. Behind you,
0:21against the cinder block wall, sits a
0:23red rolling toolbox. Five drawers, one
0:26caster that pulls left, a strip of
0:28electrical tape across a crack in the
0:30lid that was there before you owned it.
0:31Ryan walks in, keys still in his hand.
0:33He sees the empty locker. He sees the
0:35toolbox. He stops.
0:38"Oh, man," he says quietly.
0:40"They got you, too?"
0:42Three weeks ago, a notice went up beside
0:44the time clock. Workforce Realignment,
0:4738 positions. Since then, every empty
0:50locker in this building has meant the
0:51same thing. You could correct him. You
0:53don't. "Yeah," you say. "Today's my last
0:57day."
0:58He puts a hand on your shoulder and he
0:59means it. You can see him already
1:01wondering how you'll make the mortgage.
1:03Here's what Ryan doesn't know. The
1:05mortgage was paid off 3 years ago. Last
1:08night, after Rachel went to bed, you sat
1:10at the kitchen table and opened four
1:12accounts. Your 401k,
1:15$812,460.
1:18Rachel's 401k,
1:20$306,190.
1:23Two Roth IRAs, $187,330.
1:28A plain taxable brokerage account,
1:30$312,362.
1:33$1,618,342.
1:37You're 52. You didn't get laid off. You
1:39raised your hand. And the strangest part
1:41of this morning isn't the money. It's
1:43that the toolbox you're about to roll
1:45out of this building cost $340
1:48and in a way, it's the reason any of
1:50this happened. Level one, $40 a
1:52paycheck. You're 25. It's your third
1:55week running a flexo folder gluer on
1:57second shift, the machine takes flat
1:59sheets of corrugated board and turns
2:01them into boxes. Printed, slotted,
2:03folded, glued, stacked. Thousands an
2:06hour when it's running right. It's
2:07usually not running right. You make
2:09$11.40
2:12$456
2:13a week before taxes. You rent a room in
2:16a duplex on the east side of Dayton from
2:18a guy named Ethan who works nights at a
2:20hospital laundry. Your share is $310 a
2:23month. You drive a 1993 Ford Taurus with
2:27141,000 mi, a heater that only works on
2:30high, and a passenger door that only
2:32opens from the outside. At 9:40 on a
2:35Tuesday night, the gluer jams. Board
2:37folds into itself. Glue strings across
2:40the rollers like taffy. You hit the stop
2:42and call maintenance. The man who shows
2:44up is Marcus. He's 58, gray at the
2:46temples, reading glasses on a cord
2:48around his neck. He doesn't hurry. He
2:50locks out the machine, hangs his tag,
2:52and opens a battered red rolling
2:54toolbox. 20 minutes later, the line is
2:56running again. At break, he catches you
2:58staring at the toolbox. You ever think
3:01about doing my job instead of calling
3:03me? He asks. You hadn't. Maintenance
3:06techs make almost twice what you make.
3:08That's the kind of number that doesn't
3:10seem like it belongs to you.
3:13A month later, Marcus gets a new toolbox
3:15through the plant's tool allowance. He
3:17offers you the old one. 340, he says. 40
3:20a paycheck. You don't miss a payment.
3:22Why 40? Because 40 won't kill you. And
3:25because you'll pay it before you see it.
3:27That's how you pay for anything that
3:29matters.
3:30Then he taps the envelope sticking out
3:32of your back pocket, the benefits packet
3:35HR gave you on day one. You've been
3:37carrying it around for 2 months. You
3:40sign up for the 401k
3:42yet?
3:43You haven't.
3:45That night, sitting in the Taurus with
3:46the dome light on, you finally read it.
3:49The plant matches 50 cents on every
3:52dollar you put in up to 6% of your pay.
3:556% of $456
3:57is $27.36
4:00a week. The company adds $13.68.
4:04And because the money comes out before
4:06income tax, your take-home doesn't fall
4:08by $27.36.
4:10It falls by about $22. That's the part
4:13nobody explains to a 25-year-old. You
4:15give up $22 of spending money and
4:18roughly $41 lands in your account.
4:20Before the market does anything at all,
4:22you're ahead. You fill out the form. You
4:24check 6%. Ryan was hired the same week
4:27as you. He runs the gluer next to yours.
4:29When you mention the match, he shrugs.
4:31"I'll do it when I make real money."
4:33He isn't being reckless. He's sending
4:36$200 a month to his mother in
4:38Springfield, and he's saving for a
4:39truck. Everything in his life feels more
4:42urgent than retirement. Everything in
4:45yours does, too. You just sign the form
4:47anyway. Your first quarterly statement
4:49arrives in a thin white envelope. $412.
4:53It doesn't feel like money. It feels
4:54like a rumor.
4:5611 months later, the toolbox is paid
4:58off.
4:59You hand Marcus the last $40 in the
5:01break room next to the vending machine
5:03that eats quarters. He folds the bills
5:06into his shirt pocket.
5:08"Now, keep paying it," he says. "Just
5:10pay it to yourself."
5:12Then he adds something you'll remember
5:13for the next 27 years. "Everybody leaves
5:16this place eventually. Only question is
5:18whether you leave or you get left." You
5:20laugh because you're 25, but you now own
5:23a toolbox. And a toolbox doesn't mean
5:25much if you don't know how to use what's
5:27inside it.
5:28Level two, the shift you don't get paid
5:30for. You're 27. You've moved to first
5:33shift so you can sit in a classroom at
5:34the community college four nights a
5:36week. Industrial maintenance
5:38certificate, hydraulics, motor controls,
5:40programmable logic controllers. The
5:42plant reimburses tuition, but only after
5:45you pass. Your day starts at 5:15 in the
5:47morning and ends after 10:00 at night.
5:50You eat dinner out of a lunch container
5:51in the Taurus between the plant and the
5:53campus, cold rice, chicken thighs, a
5:56banana going soft. Ryan stops inviting
5:59you out on Fridays, not out of meanness,
6:01you just stopped saying yes. That fall,
6:04the market starts falling and it doesn't
6:06stop for a long time. Your statement in
6:09the spring of your third year shows
6:11$3,784.
6:14You've put in more than that from your
6:15own pay. On paper, you've lost money
6:18doing the responsible thing. You bring
6:20the statement to Marcus. He reads it
6:22with his glasses on the end of his nose.
6:24"You're buying boxes cheap," he says.
6:26"That's all this is."
6:28You don't fully understand it yet, but
6:30you understand that every $27.36
6:33now buys more of the fund than it did a
6:35year ago. If the price comes back, the
6:38shares you bought at the bottom will do
6:40the heaviest lifting. You keep going.
6:42You don't have a better plan. In
6:44February, the Taurus won't start in the
6:45college parking lot. It's 9°. A woman in
6:48scrubs pulls her car alongside yours and
6:51pops her hood without being asked. Her
6:53name is Rachel. She's finishing a
6:55pharmacy technician certification two
6:57doors down from your controls lab. She
6:59knows exactly where the clamps go.
7:01"You should probably get a new car," she
7:03says. "I should probably get a new
7:05everything," you say. She laughs. That's
7:07how it starts. You're 30 when the
7:09maintenance posting goes up on the board
7:11by the time clock. Maintenance
7:13technician one, $19.85
7:16an hour. You get it. Two weeks later,
7:18you're standing at the time clock
7:19holding a paystub. Last week's gross was
7:22$528.
7:23This week's is $794,
7:26$266
7:27more every week. Here's where most
7:30people's lives quietly reorganize
7:32themselves around the new number, a
7:33bigger apartment, a newer car. Dinners
7:36that used to be special become normal.
7:38You make one decision first before any
7:40of that has a chance. You raise your
7:42401k contribution from 6% to 10. Then
7:46you open a Roth IRA. The annual limit
7:48that year is $4,000. You can't reach it,
7:51but you set up $150 a month. Roth money
7:54goes in after tax and comes out tax-free
7:56later. And the contributions themselves
7:58can be taken back out at any time
8:00without penalty. You read that line
8:02twice. It sounds like a door you might
8:04need someday. The Taurus finally dies at
8:06178,000
8:08mi. You buy a 2001 Toyota Avalon with
8:1188,000 mi for $6,400,
8:15paid from savings. It's beige. It floats
8:18over potholes like a couch. At 32, you
8:21marry Rachel in her aunt's backyard. The
8:24whole wedding costs $4,100,
8:27including a rented tent and a lot of
8:29folding chairs. You move into a
8:31two-bedroom apartment for $725
8:34a month. The second bedroom has a desk,
8:36a filing cabinet, and the red toolbox.
8:39By the end of the year, you turn 33.
8:41Your 401k
8:43and Roth together show $48,417.
8:47It's the first time the number looks
8:48like something. It's more than your
8:50annual pay was when you started. You
8:52have no idea that in about 14 months, a
8:54third of it will disappear. Level three,
8:57the year the number went backward.
8:59You're 34. Orders start dropping in the
9:01fall. Fewer trucks at the loading dock.
9:03Fewer boxes because fewer things are
9:05being shipped. The plant cancels
9:07overtime, then cuts a weekend shift,
9:09then posts a list. 22 names, not yours.
9:12Several from second shift. You knew them
9:14by their lunch habits and their kids'
9:15names. The March statement arrives in
9:17the mailbox in the apartment lobby.
9:20You open it standing there. $31,706.
9:24Five months ago, it said $48,417.
9:29You haven't stopped contributing once.
9:30You did everything right, and the
9:32account is lower than it was two years
9:33ago. Rachel finds you at the kitchen
9:35table that night with the statement flat
9:37in front of you.
9:38"Is it gone?" she asks. You think about
9:41it honestly.
9:42"It's on sale," you say, "or it's gone.
9:45I won't know for years."
9:47Ryan stops his 401k
9:50contributions that month. With the
9:52overtime gone, his truck payment of $489
9:55suddenly feels like a weight he can't
9:57carry. He isn't panicking. He's doing
10:00math with the money in front of him. You
10:02do different math. You raise your
10:03contribution from 10% to 12. It hurts.
10:07Your take-home falls by about $30 a
10:09week, exactly when everyone around you
10:11is cutting back. You start bringing
10:12coffee from home in the dented thermos.
10:15The vending machine loses you as a
10:16customer. Then something happens that
10:18changes how you think about all of it.
10:20Marcus comes back to the plant. He
10:22retired at 66 2 years ago, sold his
10:25house, moved into a condo, planned to
10:27fish. Now he's in the maintenance shop 3
10:30days a week, part-time, wearing a
10:32visitor badge until HR prints his new
10:34one. "Had most of it in stocks when it
10:36dropped," he tells you in the break
10:38room. "Wasn't contributing anymore. Was
10:40pulling out instead. Selling at the
10:42bottom just to pay the condo fee."
10:45He says it without self-pity.
10:47"When you're adding money, a crash is a
10:48sale," he says. "When you're taking
10:50money out, it's a fire."
10:52You'll remember that sentence when it's
10:54your turn. The market begins to recover
10:56that spring.
10:57Slowly, then not slowly.
11:00At 36, you and Rachel buy a
11:02three-bedroom brick ranch in a suburb
11:04south of Dayton for $138,500.
11:09The mortgage with taxes and insurance is
11:11$918 a month. Rent was $725.
11:16You calculate the difference at the
11:17kitchen table, $193 more for a yard, a
11:21basement, and a detached garage. The red
11:23toolbox gets its own corner of that
11:25garage. By 38, the combined balance
11:28reads $121,438.
11:32The shares you kept buying when
11:34everything looked broken are now the
11:35reason the number climbed so fast. Those
11:38March paychecks bought fund units at
11:40prices you'll never see again. You get
11:42promoted to lead maintenance technician,
11:44and that's when the money starts doing
11:46something you never asked it to do.
11:49Level four, the year it out-earned you.
11:51You're 39. Lead tech pays $28.40
11:55an hour. With overtime, your W-2 says
11:58$66,500.
12:00Rachel now makes $38,200
12:03at the pharmacy. You sit in the garage
12:05on a Sunday afternoon with a legal pad
12:06on top of the toolbox and plan where
12:09every raise goes before it arrives. You
12:11put 15% into your 401k.
12:15Rachel puts 8% into hers and gets her
12:17full match. Both Roth IRAs are funded to
12:21the $5,500
12:23limit. What's left goes into a taxable
12:25brokerage account, $300 a month
12:27automatically on the 1st. Including
12:30employer matches, around $29,000 a year
12:33now leaves your paychecks before you can
12:35touch it. In January, the year-end
12:37statements arrive. You add them up on
12:39the legal pad. The accounts grew by
12:41$38,600
12:43last year from market returns alone.
12:45That's not counting a single dollar you
12:47contributed. $38,600
12:50is more than you made in a full year
12:51when you ran the gluer. You stare at
12:53that for a while. Then you go inside and
12:55make dinner. At 40, the Avalon fails its
12:58first serious test. 214,000
13:02mi. The mechanic at the shop on
13:04Wilmington Pike hands you an estimate on
13:06a clipboard. $2,680.
13:09Transmission. Ryan's in the parking lot
13:11at work the next morning leaning against
13:13his third pickup. Two years old, leather
13:15seats, a $743
13:18monthly payment. He doesn't mind at all.
13:20You can afford a new one, he says.
13:22Everybody knows you're not hurting. He's
13:24right. You could. A new Forester would
13:26be about $27,000.
13:28That evening, you open the dealership's
13:30website. You build one. You look at the
13:33monthly payment, then you close the tab.
13:35Instead, you buy a 2011 Subaru Forester
13:38with 64,000 miles from a retired school
13:41teacher in Centerville $14,900
13:45cash from the brokerage account's cash
13:47buffer. Ryan isn't wrong to love his
13:49truck. He toes his boat to Caesar Creek
13:51every summer weekend with his kids.
13:53That's a real life. He enjoys every mile
13:56of it, but every truck payment he makes
13:58is a dollar that leaves for good. Every
14:01dollar you don't spend on a car stays
14:03and does something. Neither of you is
14:05smarter. You're just paying for
14:06different things. At 43, the January
14:09statements arrive again. You do the same
14:11thing at the kitchen table. Same legal
14:13pad, same pen. Market growth last year,
14:16$71,840.
14:19Your W-2, $73,200.
14:22You read both numbers several times. The
14:25money worked almost as hard as you did
14:26last year. You stood on concrete floors
14:29for 2,300 hours. You got a phone call at
14:323:10 in the morning when the boiler went
14:34down. You missed your niece's birthday
14:36because a corrugator bearing failed. The
14:38money never clocked in. Combined
14:40balance, $403,510.
14:43Rachel reads the legal pad over your
14:45shoulder. She's quiet for a while.
14:47"So, when do we stop?" she asks. It's
14:50the first time either of you has said it
14:53out loud. You don't have an answer, but
14:55you know where to find one. Level five,
14:58the spreadsheet with an ending. You're
15:0045. It's Sunday night, late in the year.
15:02You've spent three weekends building a
15:04spreadsheet on the old laptop in the
15:06second bedroom. Every bank statement,
15:08every credit card, every utility bill.
15:10Electric, $169.42
15:14a month on average. Internet, $113.60.
15:19Groceries, gas, insurance, property
15:22taxes, the $918
15:26mortgage, a week at a rented cabin in
15:28Hocking Hills every October. Total
15:31household spending, $61,400
15:34a year.
15:35Without the mortgage, about $54,600.
15:38A common rule of thumb, based on decades
15:41of historical market data, suggests a
15:43balanced portfolio can support
15:45withdrawals of around 4% a year for a
15:47long retirement. It's a guideline, not a
15:50promise.
15:51But it gives you a target. $54,600
15:54divided by 4% is $1,365,000.
15:59You round up for safety, $1.5 million.
16:02The balance tonight is $568,430.
16:07You build the projection, same
16:09contributions, conservative returns,
16:11mortgage paid off early. The year in the
16:13cell where the projection crosses the
16:15target is the year you turn 52. For the
16:17first time, the spreadsheet has an
16:19ending. 3 months later, the world shuts
16:21down. The plant doesn't. Grocery stores
16:24need boxes. Online orders need boxes.
16:28Every corrugator in the building runs
16:30around the clock. You work 12-hour
16:32shifts, mask fogging your safety
16:34glasses, fixing machines that were never
16:36designed to run this hard. In 5 weeks,
16:39the portfolio falls from $568,430
16:44to $406,215
16:47and $162,215.
16:50That's more than 2 years of your pay,
16:51gone on paper while you were on a ladder
16:53with a torque wrench. Here's the strange
16:55part. In 2008, a drop of $17,000
16:59made you sit at the kitchen table in
17:01silence. This time, you look at the
17:03number on your phone in the break room.
17:05You put the phone back in your pocket.
17:07You go back out and replace a drive
17:08belt. You don't sell. You don't change
17:11your contribution. Marcus's sentence
17:13sits in your head. When you're adding
17:14money, a crash is a sale. You're still
17:16adding. At 47, you're promoted to
17:19maintenance supervisor, salaried,
17:21$81,500.
17:23No more overtime pay, but plenty of
17:24overtime. The phone rings at 2:00 a.m.
17:27now instead of the pager. That summer,
17:29the balance reaches $873,560.
17:33A single slow week in the market moves
17:35it by more than you saved in the first
17:3710 years of your career. The next year,
17:39it drops to $742,300.
17:43You watch it go down the way you watch
17:45weather. At 49, a letter comes from the
17:48mortgage servicer, paid in full. You'd
17:50been sending an extra $400 a month for 6
17:53years. The house is yours. Your fixed
17:56costs drop by $918
17:58a month overnight. That spring, you take
18:01Marcus to breakfast at a diner on Far
18:03Hills Avenue. He's 82 now, finally
18:06retired for good, using a cane, but
18:08sharp as ever. You show him the
18:09spreadsheet on your phone. He looks at
18:11it a long time. "The number's not the
18:14question anymore," he says. "The
18:16question is what you're staying for."
18:18Then he asks about your plan for the
18:20gap. It's a good question. You can't
18:22take money from your 401k
18:25without a 10% penalty until 59 and a
18:28half. There's a provision called the
18:30rule of 55 that allows penalty-free
18:32access to your current employer's plan
18:34if you leave in the year you turn 55 or
18:37later. You're going to be 52, 3 years
18:40short. So, the bridge has to come from
18:42somewhere else. The taxable brokerage
18:44account, the Roth contributions you've
18:46made over two decades, which you can
18:48withdraw at any time. Severance, if
18:50there is any, and Rachel's job. She
18:53wants to keep working at the pharmacy
18:54for a few more years. She likes her
18:56co-workers. She likes being good at
18:58something. Her employer health insurance
19:01covers you both until you figure out the
19:03rest. Marcus nods slowly, then picks up
19:05the check before you can. "Old man's
19:08privilege," he says. That's the last
19:10time you see him. He dies the following
19:13winter. At the funeral, someone you've
19:15never met tells you Marcus taught half
19:17the maintenance techs in the Miami
19:18Valley how to read a hydraulic
19:20schematic. You don't tell them he also
19:22taught you how to read a 401K form.
19:25Level six, the day they couldn't lay you
19:27off. You're 51. The plant has new
19:30owners, a private equity firm out of
19:32Chicago. The new plant manager carries a
19:34tablet everywhere and talks about
19:35efficiency the way some people talk
19:37about religion. Supervisors are now on
19:40call every other weekend, mandatory.
19:42Your phone goes off at 2:13 on a Sunday
19:44morning because a glue pump failed on
19:46the night shift and nobody on that crew
19:48knows the bypass. You drive in, you fix
19:50it. You sit in the forest or afterward
19:53in the dark, engine running for heat.
19:55179,000
19:57miles on the odometer. You open the
19:58brokerage app, $1,494,820.
20:03At this size, a 1% move in the market is
20:05about $15,000.
20:07That's more than 3 months of your
20:08take-home pay. It happens on random
20:10Tuesdays now. Nobody asks your
20:12permission. Something has changed and
20:14you finally feel it. The plant can still
20:16cut your hours. It can still call you at
20:182:00 a.m. It can restructure your role,
20:21change your schedule, double your
20:22workload. What it can't do anymore is
20:25take away your future. The leverage has
20:27quietly reversed. The following
20:29September, the notice goes up beside the
20:31time clock. Workforce Realignment, 38
20:34positions, a voluntary separation option
20:36for employees with at least 20 years of
20:38service. 12 weeks of pay. Megan in HR
20:42calls you into her office the next
20:44morning. She's been at the plant 11
20:46years. She keeps a jar of peppermints on
20:49her desk and a photo of her twin sons in
20:51Little League uniforms. "You know your
20:53job isn't on the list, right?" she says.
20:56"Supervisors are protected." "I know."
20:59"So, why are you asking for the form?"
21:01You tell her the truth. "Because if I
21:03go, someone else doesn't have to."
21:06There's a 27-year-old tech on your crew,
21:092 years in, baby due in January. His
21:12position is one of the ones in the
21:13realignment pool.
21:15Megan can't say it, but you both know
21:17the arithmetic.
21:18Every volunteer is one fewer involuntary
21:21cut.
21:22She slides the form across the desk. 12
21:25weeks of your $89,400
21:28salary, $20,630
21:30before taxes.
21:32It barely matters to you now. 20 years
21:34ago, it would have been more than a
21:36third of everything you owned. You sign
21:38it. You drive home and sit with Rachel
21:40at the same kitchen table where you once
21:42stared at $31,706
21:46and couldn't tell if it was gone.
21:48You open all four accounts together.
21:50$1,618,342.
21:54You go through the bridge one more time.
21:56The taxable account and Roth
21:58contributions alone cover more than 7
22:00years of spending. Longer still because
22:02Rachel is working. By the time you reach
22:0459 and a half, the bridge will have done
22:06its job and the 401(k)s will be there.
22:10Rachel listens to all of it. Then she
22:12asks a question the spreadsheet can't
22:14answer.
22:15What are you going to do on Monday?
22:17You open your mouth. And for the first
22:19time in 27 years, you realize you don't
22:22know. Back to Friday morning, the locker
22:24room. Locker 114 is empty. Ryan is still
22:28standing there, his hand on your
22:30shoulder.
22:31"If you need anything," he says, "my
22:33cousin's shop in Xenia is always looking
22:35for guys who know motors. I could make a
22:37call."
22:38"Thanks, man," you say. "I'll be all
22:40right."
22:41He doesn't believe you.
22:43That's fine.
22:45At 6:30, you find the young tech in the
22:47maintenance shop. The one with the baby
22:49due in January. His name stayed off the
22:51final list yesterday. He doesn't know
22:53why. You roll the red toolbox over and
22:55stop it at his bench. The caster pulls
22:58left, the way it always has. "It's
23:00yours," you say. He stares at it. "What
23:03do I owe you?"
23:04You think about Marcus, the break room,
23:07the vending machine that ate quarters.
23:09"40 a paycheck," you say. He laughs,
23:12then sees you're not joking. He starts
23:14reaching for his wallet. "Not to me,"
23:16you say.
23:17"Sign up for the match, 6%, then pay the
23:2140 to yourself."
23:22He looks at you like you're speaking
23:24another language. 27 years ago, you
23:27looked at Marcus the same way.
23:29At 2:30, you clock out for the last
23:31time. You hand your badge to Megan. She
23:34hugs you and doesn't say anything. In
23:36the parking lot, the Forester is
23:38waiting. 187,000
23:40miles, a scratch on the rear bumper from
23:43a shopping cart, cloth seats worn pale
23:45on the driver's side. You could buy
23:47anything on this lot now. You don't want
23:49to. Behind you, co-workers are heading
23:51out to their trucks, carrying the same
23:53quiet worry they've carried all month.
23:55Some of them think you're one of the
23:56casualties. They're not entirely wrong.
23:59The plan did end something today. It
24:01just ended it on your terms. Everybody
24:03leaves this place eventually. The only
24:05question is whether you leave or you get
24:07left. You start the engine. You pull out
24:10of the lot. And on Monday morning, for
24:12the first time since you were 25, nobody
24:14is expecting you anywhere. If this story
24:17stayed with you, give it a like. It
24:19genuinely helps the channel reach more
24:21people. And tell me in the comments, if
24:23you could walk away from your job
24:25tomorrow, would you tell your co-workers
24:26the truth or let them think whatever
24:28they wanted? I read every answer.
24:31Subscribe if you want more stories like
24:33this one. Thank you for spending this
24:34time with me. I'll see you in the next
24:36one.

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